The Painting Speaks

I'm continuing my efforts to "dash off"

oil sketches as test tiles but sometimes the subject

matter speaks and demands more attention.

It's really a joy to become so engrossed

in the execution that time does not register at all.

Such was the case...

A fresh 12 x 9 canvas and a photo reference with a new intention: emphasize the basket of flowers, leaving the rest vague.

My first sketch had too much chair so I tried drawing out the basket and then adding the chair...a quick warm up to the warm up!

I did a rough layout in oil just trying to get the main outlines on the canvas.

I went a little bit further and set it aside to dry.

The next day I really got involved in the floral arrangement, even while trying not to get too detailed.

So the three pink cone flowers became my center of interest and the rest was left in a sketchy mode.

I really like this but I think the basket could get even bigger some day?!  

The neat thing about this scene is that I really did gather those flowers at a friend's farm.  I set them down to run inside and when I came back it looked like the perfect still life.  I snapped a few photos to paint later.

This is actually the second time I have executed this photo.  The first had a lot more background and it sold to a young mother who had seen it and returned to secure it for above her writing desk...she was setting the scene for her personal pursuit of creative writing.  

While I had meant to stop once I got the composition laid out, I just could not leave it.  The basket called to be fleshed out and the cone flower begged for center stage.  How could I resist? 

I wonder where this rendering might find a new home?

COLOR FULLY YOURS,

Cindy
p.s.  Not long after I wrote this blog the painting found a new home... also under the roof of a writer!
I really enjoy knowing where my work goes, it's comforting to know why the buyer fell in love and that it was (and will be) a viewing "experience."

Is "Plein Aire" ever a "Still Life"

OR

Can a "Still Life" Qualify as "Plein Aire"

?

I'll let you be the judge: 

The Mission: to paint plein air for 2-3 days producing 2 "sell-able" pieces, one for a charity auction, the second to sell at same fundraiser.  The Obstacle: several days of "iffy" weather resulting in fast changing light and cloudy skies. The (personal) Solution: to carry props of interest to a place I wanted to spend some time.  

Let me share what happened over the course of a rather relaxing afternoon.

I set up near one of my favorite river spots

got my painting gear together and choose a perspective where I could sit and paint

I like to begin by blocking out the scene in large swaths of value

at this stage it was time to step back, sip some water and

view the results;  the sun was now hot overhead and distorting my view of the

canvas so I moved everything back under the trees, I painted a bit longer, snapped

some photos and called it a day.

back in the studio I added a few touches trying hard not to destroy

that alla prima feel one creates when outdoors.

Signed, framed, delivered....it's titled "Destination" because right now I am all about enjoying the destination, the now, the fleeting moments we tend to overlook because we are all caught up in that huge, endless journey from which we are supposed to be learning.  Nah, it is about the destination, so sit down, shut up and enjoy it when you get there. 

SITTING & ENJOYING,

Cindy

Decoding the Symbols

This post is prompted in part by a story I was listening to recently on NPR.  They were announcing a still life show and began to discuss the humble status of the still life.  For non-artists, a still life is a painting of gathered objects which the artist arranges and lights before capturing on canvas.  I was unaware that in the art world this is the "lowliest of categories." What I did remember, and the story went on to elaborate, was that the still life often contains a secret code of the artists' choosing.  The use of symbols got me to thinking about the symbols I find in other painters work as well as the ones I find myself using.  But I get ahead of myself!

These are all symbols we easily recognize today, now referred to as logos.  Often we don't even need the word to distinguish them.  If I were to work one into a painting it might help convey an additional message to the viewer.  Thus it was when oil painters began years ago to share messages in their work. 

In this piece several symbols are used and, if you know the code, you would see a strong message in it.  Generally accepted notes remind us that certain foods and flowers represented the seasons as well as the five senses, the use of a skull was mortality, while an hour glass, a pocket watch, a burning candle or a book with pages turning was to remind viewers of the ephemerality of sensory pleasures. Brevity of life was a huge concern in centuries past.  At certain times religious symbols were not popular in art so other items took their place and lilies stood in for purity, the rose was the Virgin Mary, the apple related to Christianity and ivy symbolized eternal life.

The use of symbols in still life painting did not end in the 18th century and anyone who makes a study of this area will point out the iconography of more modern work.  Picasso's masterpiece "Guernica" is incredibly complex when time is taken to decipher the many symbols of international conflict he incorporated into it.

This is all prelude to suggest that those of us who find current still life paintings rather "hum drum" (oh, yawn...another seashell next to a dead fish...) give some extra time and thought to whether or not there is a message from the artist.  And yes, some are too obtuse to decode, but others just take a bit of time and creativity.  Often objects (pipes, slippers, eyeglasses) stand in for a particular person while toys may represent time gone by. 

Here are two random pastels I did in the past...see any similar trait?  I seem to like to paint "paths."  I look for areas that have a path or a road or a zig zag going through them.  I'll let you come up with an interpretation of that!

Right now I am working on a series that intentionally uses symbols to represent certain lives I am alluding to.  It has been fun trying to create a recognizable code to stand in for the words I cannot paint.  I am hopeful that some of them will strike a note as clearly to others as the burning candle did for viewers in centuries past.  We will see.

Meanwhile, all of this (blame NPR) was to alert you to the fact that while you are enjoying a piece for its color, form or fashion, there may also be a message hidden in it that the artist has planted for those intrigued enough to figure it out.  Try.  Give it a go and see what the symbols are telling you...even if you are not spot on to the artists' intent it will take still life viewing to a new level!

ArtFully Yours,
Cindy

Choose Two

Qiang promised me that my "personal style" is already deep inside of me, that layer by layer I will work to uncover it.  With all due respect Qiang, this is a layer and I am certain it is not "me."  He does the most beautiful still lifes in direct application of oil paint.  I started this piece utilizing his method but I did not finish it that way.  It took several more sessions and a lot of glazing before I got anywhere close to being satisfied with the end result.  And while there is one more I shall share about his method later, I am closer to thinking that his style of painting is not my style.  I am finding that I actually enjoy the "push and pull" of dragging out the methodology so that (as a former teacher preaches) one can "let the magic happen."  Maybe someday I will be able to whip it out with the first application of the perfectly mixed color but until then I will continue to know that it won't be done right away.  And, as this still life was a group project and I did not choose the contents of it, I find that I am less committed to the end result.  When the objects have personal meaning I tend to get more excited about it.  Excuses, I know, but far better than the age old "dog ate my homework." 

Back to the easel.....

Cider Time a la Qiang

One more wanna-be from the workshop with Qiang Huang: Cider Time.  What took the "master" 2.5 hours and minimal strokes took me 4 hours to lay it in and a studio session to finish....with at least a million strokes.  My poor apples lost their "glow" at one point and it was no easy task trying to find it!

But that's why he is the teacher and I the humble grasshopper.  It was my sincerest intention to follow the workshop with several weeks of intense remedial work to practice all that we learned on still life painting.  Alas! I fell on my elbow and broke the funny bone clean off.  Even though I lucked out and damaged the left one (I am right handed) this "incident" did put a crimp in my oil painting.  I'll be posting graphite for a little bit....hoping to return to oil soon.